July 7, 2007

Petrified Piranhas

"In fact, the little fish are so fearful of human contact that while Magurran and Queiroz were studying wild-caught fish in a tank, they had to erect screens to stop the fish hyperventilating (flapping their gill flaps more rapidly, indicating stress) every time the researchers came too close."

Seems that piranhas aren't overly fond of eating us alive, either. Piranhas often prefer their meals to be dead first, and then they give it a nibble, not a gnawing.